CrazyLegs is Coming!

Yay!  I am so excited!  I just got our bib numbers for Saturday's CrazyLegs race.  Why am I so excited?  This is the first race my son James has actually trained for that is over a mile.*  Yessirree, he ran 3-4 times a week for the last 4 weeks.

We ran long.  We ran short.  We ran strides.  We ran hills.  We had a really great time together.  It wasn't always easy.  In fact, it was really hard at first.  Even last weekend it was hard for him to get up the motivation to get out the door for his long run.  But he did it and I am so proud of him.

For background, James has run many a 5K and he even ran a 10K last summer.  But he has never trained.  He just bounces off a soccer season or something and goes.  He has a lot of fun and typically lands a pretty impressive time for a young little dude.  But that 10K last summer wasn't much fun for him as he wasn't trained for it and he had to walk a fair bit.  I knew I shouldn't have let him do it, but he was super persistent.  Fine, you'll see what it is like to run a distance you are not prepared for.  It was 80 degrees and he was not prepared for the 10K.  He finished in just over an hour, which is certainly a respectable time, and we actually had a lot of fun together out there.  BUT, he did learn his lesson (and he immediately stopped telling me he was going to run a half marathon in the near future too).

A few months ago I asked him if he wanted to run CrazyLegs, which is a huge Madison race.  It is an 8K that starts at the Capital and ends on the 50 yard line at Camp Randall Stadium.  He said yes.  Even after I told him he had to train if he wanted to do it.

So I wrote up a schedule, and the rest is history.  His last little shake-out run is tomorrow night.  

In 2005, I ran CrazyLegs and it was pretty much the first road race I ever ran.  I vividly recall training for it and working up to 5 miles.  I ended up running a 44:50 in that race.  I predict James may smash that time on Saturday.

Whatever the result, the journey has been priceless.  I cannot wait for race day! 

* I guess it is not the first race he has trained for as he has trained for the Capital Mile the last couple years.  But this is the first time he has put in work for longer distances.